


Sicheng to the Rescue (and Then Taeil for My Heart)

by SichengForTheWinWin



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Drabble, Fluff, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Pining, Sm sucks, and johnny needs to stop bribing people, taeil's the best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 11:31:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15484812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SichengForTheWinWin/pseuds/SichengForTheWinWin
Summary: Sicheng lays in Taeil's bed, with Yuta snoring lightly across the room, and regrets his decisions. Yuta was just trying to help, in his clumsy, not-very-helpful way, and he'd donethatorthe one where mark passes out during practice from being overworked





	Sicheng to the Rescue (and Then Taeil for My Heart)

**Author's Note:**

> started: july 24, 2018  
> finished: july 25, 2018
> 
> I discovered just how whipped I am for Sicheng… This was supposed to be about Mark and then… oh well.

Sicheng slouched into the practice room twenty minutes late, looking like he’d just been run over by a bus.  He stumbled in the door for a few seconds and then froze, his entire body shivering violently, until his eyes cleared and he smiled brightly.

“Hey, guys, what’s up?”

That’s how things had gone on for so long at this point, no one really noticed.  When Sicheng would stop moving, everyone would hold their breath, leaning in slightly to rush and catch him if he fell; but then he’d straighten himself up and keep going as if nothing were wrong and everyone would continue as if they weren’t waiting for the day he’d go down and not be able to get himself back up.

The problem was the NCT 116 project.  Yukhei was juggling things well, what with being an oversized puppy with boundless energy, but Sicheng was sick.  About a month ago, right before those practices and preparations began, he came down with mono and SM didn’t get him the treatment he needed, so he was completely drained and then worked to the bone.

“Sicheng is gonna be sitting out today,” Yuta announced one morning, sauntering into the practice room.  He looked particularly determined, even with his hair flopping into his face and a giant oversized sweater on.  “Come on, baby, we’re taking a break.”

Yuta, somehow, conned Sicheng into cuddling with him in the corner of the room while the rest of U practiced, even though Sicheng didn’t look very enthused about this and Taeyong was semi-upset with the sudden change in plans.

Practice went rather smoothly until about halfway, when Mark began to lag behind.  He was typically the first to get tired, what with all the work he did, but he always bounced right back, so Taeyong called a twelve minute break, twelve minutes exactly, and they all flopped to the ground.

“Are you two about to fuck?  Because I’d much rather you take it back to your dorm room instead of in front of all of us.  Thanks.”

“Very funny, Dongyoung,” Sicheng snapped, not even bothering to open his eyes or unwind himself from Yuta’s arms.  “You’re just jealous the most you can get is Taeyong.”

“Hey!” Taeyong squawked, offended.  “I am a catch, thank you very much.”

Everybody laughed and Taeyong huffed, standing up and messing with the music stand.  Dongyoung followed him close behind, wrapping his arms around Taeyong and kissing down his neck.  He made a very big show of it, too, twisting Taeyong around until they both tripped over each other, falling into a puddle on the floor.  Everybody groaned. They were always so lovey dovey with each other, even though they wouldn’t yet admit they were seriously together.

“Yes, my dear, you are.  A very sexy yet very annoying catch.  And sometimes I wish I had just thrown you back.”

With that, Taeyong called the twelve minute break over and, pouting, went back to trying to make sure the right tracks were queued up properly.

Everyone, except for Sicheng, and Yuta of course, ran through a few easier routines,  before trying out something harder. This practice, they were working on a project that SM wanted NCT U to participate in, something with lots of groups covering each others stuff, and so they were required to perfect a modified version of Monsta X’s All In.  It was a rather difficult dance because, while the moves themselves weren’t terrible, especially with their SM branded training, there were lots of quick formations and precise transitions that even being a tiny bit off would screw up the whole thing.

 

\-----

 

And Mark was screwing up the whole thing.  He could tell, but he couldn’t make himself go any faster or hit the move more precisely.

“Minhyung-ah, are you okay?” Jungwoo asked in the twenty second break between run-throughs.  He was always so caring and aware. “You’re slipping a little bit.”

“Yeah, I’m fine, hyung,” Mark more or less gasped, running his hands through his hair and debating whether or not it was long enough to put in a ponytail.  It was getting very hot in here, hotter than it normally was, and he wobbled his way to the a/c to turn it down. Would the hyungs mind if he practiced without a shirt?

The music started before he made it back to his position and the other five began without him, which was fine, because the next second, he was staring at a very skewed version of what looked to be Sicheng wearing an authentic Yuta-fur coat.

All he could hear was a high-pitched ringing from far away, a constant noise that made his head ache. And then cold hands were lifting him up and he writhed, his whole body convulsing as cold lava poured through him and tears tracked his face. Everything was wrong. Everything was so so wrong. And he couldn’t do anything about it. Anything but cry and wait for it all to end.

Sicheng’s face floated into the blackness that was his vision and he sobbed more, trying to cling to the normalcy of its shape.

“Mark!  Mark, can you hear me?  Respond, damn it!”

“S- ch-ch-che…” Mark stammered, his mouth refusing to form words properly.

“Oh, thank god!”  Sicheng pulled Mark fully into his chest, petting his hair and blowing softly on his burning skin.  “Taeyong, where’s the nearest bathroom?”

“Just down the hall.  Yukhei, Jungwoo, can you-”

“No, I’ve got him.  Yuta, come on.”

Mark couldn’t really tell what was going on, he was still pretty out of it.  So when he fully regained sense of himself, he was surprised to find he was perched up on a sink counter in only his underwear with Sicheng standing between his legs and Yuta leaning against the door to make sure no one walked in, watching them closely.  Sicheng was wiping his face softly with a wet towel, watching him for any signs of losing consciousness again, but he felt pretty grounded now.

“Wha… Whas goin’...” Mark slurred, lifting one of his arms to push off Sicheng.  It felt like lead was running through his veins when he tried to move.

He continued despite Mark’s half-hearted protests, just brushing his arms away with little trouble.  “You threw up on yourself a little when we got you standing the first time, so I’m cleaning you up. Other than that, how are you feeling?”

“I… I’m…”

“Sicheng, don’t bother him too much.  He’s still coming back.” Yuta’s voice shook a little and he wouldn’t make eye contact with Mark.  He looked a little pale and Mark got a touch nervous for him. He knew that Yuta had a crush on Sicheng and might be uncomfortable with this, but Mark hadn’t put himself here, Yuta wouldn’t hold it against him, right?

“Minhyung-ah, have you been sick lately?  Anything that could have brought this on?”

“Well, he’s been about as overworked as you have been the last few weeks for the last few years, so…”

Sicheng shot Yuta a look and then he turned back to push Mark’s hair away from his face.  “Mark-ah, we should really get you back to the dorm. You need your rest after today.”

“You’re one to talk,” Yuta snarked.

“Yuta!” Sicheng snapped at him, spinning around to glare.  Yuta drew back, but didn’t retract his statement, looking upset at the floor when Sicheng gave Mark a loving, comforting look.

 

\-----

 

Yuta paced outside of his room, debating whether he should go in or not.  He was supposed to have practice today, 127 all did, except for Sicheng, who, after the incident with Mark yesterday, had been given a week off to fully recover.  It was the last thing Taeyong needed to leverage a break for him out of the higher ups. (Whenever he wasn’t busy with NCT schedules, Taeyong was working on putting together a case with a personal relations team against the current treatment of idols under SM and to get them to change their policies.  That instance went into the file in great detail.) Mark was given two weeks off and Dongyoung had moved into Taeyong and Johnny’s room to give him space to recuperate.

Yuta just wasn’t really sure whether going in right now was a good idea or not.  Sicheng hadn’t said anything to him yesterday afternoon, once they’d gotten Mark tucked into bed and he’d somehow convinced Sicheng to lie down himself.  He’d just sat quietly in bed and, when Taeil had come in later, having returned from whatever mysterious things Taeil did in his free time, he’d cuddled into  _ his  _ bed with him and gone on to sleep.

Yuta knew he was upset with him, probably about the way he had acted when they were taking care of Mark, but his blood had been surging through his veins, his heart racing, his entire body feeling like it was about to combust watching Sicheng softly handle Mark in that way.  He was jealous, he knew that, and of Mark, he knew that too, but not in the possessive way of resenting Mark for being able to have that thing he couldn’t, or in that case, be cared for by Sicheng. He, for just that second, wanted to be Mark, to be the overwork, barely stable boy who reeked of vomit and couldn’t speak just because he got to have Sicheng so close to him in that way.

He had this feeling in his chest he could only characterize as something missing. He  _ missed  _ Sicheng and he hadn’t even lost him.  He hated himself for his feelings, knew it would make everything disastrous in the long run, but right now, he missed Sicheng and everything around him made him feel sad.

That’s why he couldn’t go in.  He couldn’t bring himself to see Sicheng curled up on his own bed, ignoring him, or, god forbid, Taeil’s.  He couldn’t bare to spend another evening in painful silence while Sicheng ignored his suffering. He couldn’t sleep alone with two other warm bodies in the room and nothing tethering him to that spot.

“Yuta?”  Yuta whirled around to see Taeil walking hesitantly towards him, a nervous look about him.  “What are you doing?”

“I- uh… well…”  Yuta shifted his weight and looked around, hoping Taeil wouldn’t notice the blush that had taken over his face.  He knew that everyone knew about his thing for Sicheng, but he really hoped they wouldn’t start teasing him about it again.

“Did- Did something happen between you and Sicheng?  You seemed kind of… off last night.”

Great.  So it was obvious then.  Yuta had hoped that maybe Taeil wouldn’t notice, just think Sicheng was in a clingy mood because he was tired and still unwell, but Yuta must not have been as discreet with his grumpiness as he thought he was.

“No, everything’s fine.”  Yuta plastered the fakest smile ever on his face and prayed that he would just accept it.

Taeil gave him a look and his smile melted.  “What happened, Yuta?”

 

\-----

 

Taeil found Yuta in the same place the next day, pacing outside of their room and biting his nails.  He wasn’t supposed to do that, had been scolded multiple times by the stylists for it, but he wasn’t sure what to do!  He’d had today off, only Dream had practice, and so he’d tagged along with Johnny around town. Ever since Dongyoung and Taeyong and started… whatever it was they were doing, Johnny had taken every opportunity he could to escape the dorm and leave them with “some alone time.”  So Yuta just tagged along today, trying to dodge Johnny’s probing questions.

He’d eventually ended up crying in an ice cream parlor while Johnny panicked, struggling to cheer him up with stupid jokes and fumbling hands.  Johnny ended up buying him about four extra servings of ice cream and promised him green tea cake later just to get him to stop bawling in public.  He also said he’d whoop Sicheng’s ass for breaking Yuta’s heart, but he knew that was just Johnny being dramatic. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Now, Johnny made eye contact with Yuta from over Taeil’s shoulder, cringed a little, and walked away.  So much for friendship.

“Yuta,” Taeil sighed.  “What are you doing? I thought we handled this yesterday.”

Yuta had to fight back his tears again.  Apparently, he was incredibly emotional today, and Taeil wouldn’t bribe him to stop crying like Johnny would.

Yesterday, Taeil had gone against everything Yuta knew of him and pulled him into his bed, cuddling with him while he explained how he had screwed everything up with Sicheng, thoroughly fucked up his last chance.  Taeil had comforted him and assured him that everything was okay, that Sicheng wouldn’t hate Yuta just for something like that, that he was still his friend. Sicheng had slept soundly ten feet away, oblivious to their conversation.

However, it appears that Taeil’s comforting words and Johnny’s comforting sweets did nothing to soothe Yuta’s heart.  He was still stuck panicking about Sicheng hating him.

“Well, turns out I wasn’t listening yesterday.”

Taeil sighed deeply, exhaustion in his voice but humour in his eyes.  Yuta as mildly offended that Taeil took so much amusement in his pain.  “Yuta, just go in.” Taeil walked towards him, his hands floating half a foot from Yuta as he seemed to debate actually forcing him through the door.  “Talk to him, hold him, kiss him maybe. But stop being a little bitch and just do it!”

Yuta stepped back, his mouth falling open in shock.  Taeil almost never acted like this. “I can’t just kiss him!” Yuta hissed, hoping beyond belief that no one could hear them.

“Why not?  Lord know everyone wants to sleep with you, what makes him any different?  Just fucking do it, okay?”

Yuta spluttered and pushed Taeil away, but he didn’t back down.  He kept pulling on Yuta, trying to get him to fortify and just go in.

“Yuta, can you please stop-  Taeil? Sorry, I didn’t know you were out here.”  Both of them froze and turned slowly, noticing Sicheng standing in the doorway, looking confused.

He was so pretty that Yuta lost his breath at the sight.  His blond hair was a mess, piled on top of his head where he’d pushed it from his eyes, and his lips were pink and chapped, a tiny streak of black on the bottom looking vaguely like dried blood.  His eyes had dark smudges around them where he’d not bothered to get all his makeup off from taking selcas the day before and the white shirt he was wearing, that almost definitely belonged to Johnny, was falling off his shoulders and showing off his killer collarbones.  To be fair, he wasn’t exactly trying very hard to look nice, probably didn’t care about his appearance at all right now, but Yuta was that in love that he could be covered in vomit and sweat and Yuta would still think he looked beautiful. (That had actually happened before, when Sicheng caught the flu, and Yuta had thought he was breathtaking.)

“Oh, I was just teasing Yuta about something.”  Taeil straightened himself up and smiled as if he hadn’t just been manhandling Yuta.  “I’m gonna be staying over in the U dorm tonight with Kun and them, so you guys have all the fun you can have.  See you tomorrow,  _ lovebirds _ .” Taeil whispered the last word at Yuta and he flinched, finally breaking from his reverie of Sicheng’s beauty.  Taeil sauntered off, a snarky sway in his hips, and Yuta felt like he was about to combust.

When he turned back, Sicheng had slunk back into the room, leaving the door wide open.  “Are you coming or what?”

 

\-----

 

He’s not exactly sure how he ended up where he is now, with Sicheng’s warm body above him and a knee tipping very close to a place he begged it not to hit.  Sicheng’s hands were in his hair, his face buried into his neck, and his shirt bunched up on the floor. It was getting really really warm, what with their body heat combining in the poorly air conditioned room, and Yuta didn’t feel like he could hold on much longer.

“Sicheng,” Yuta sighed.  Sicheng’s fingers ran down his throat and then his bare chest and Yuta arched into the touch, his mind whirling with hundreds of fantasies of those delicate fingers.  It took everything in his power to say the next few words. “Sicheng, you need to stop.”

He pulled back instantly, sitting up to straddle Yuta instead of lay across him.  He was flushed pink and glistening with sweat, a hazy look in his eyes, but he respected Yuta’s wishes and stopped touching him when asked.

“What are you doing?” Yuta found himself pleading, his breath heaving as he tried to regain himself.

It had all happened so fast.  Yuta had been nervously walking into the room when Sicheng closed the door behind him, surprising him.  He hadn’t realised that Sicheng was still near the door and he spun around panicked. Everything had blurred together, with Sicheng stripping Yuta down to his boxers, kissing reassurances into his skin as he went, pulling off his own shirt, and then shoving Yuta onto his bed.  He kept repeating how much he loved Yuta, how he was his best friend and he didn’t hate him, and Yuta’s mind was reeling with information and sensations and he couldn’t get a handle on the situation.

Until right now.  Sicheng, in all his gorgeous glory, was staring down at Yuta, a slightly annoyed look in his eyes but a cheeky smile on his face.  “Well, I was about to ride you, but if you don’t want to, I guess we could… cuddle?” He did not seem very thrilled with the prospect of “cuddling” and Yuta couldn’t help but laugh.  He was terrified beyond belief, but Sicheng was still the best thing to ever happen to him.

“You were gonna… what?”  Yuta pushed up on his elbows, securing himself a bit better.  He was taking full advantage of this chance to stare at Sicheng.  He didn’t get this opportunity a lot, and he rather enjoyed the view right now.

Sicheng sighed as if Yuta was an idiot for not understanding, and then leaned down to whisper, “I was going to ride you, Nakamoto Yuta.  Hard and fast and deep.” He tugged at Yuta’s ear with his teeth and pulled back, running his fingers through his own hair to straighten it a bit.  “But that’s cool. We can just relax or do whatever it is you and Taeil were doing last night when you thought I was asleep.”

Yuta’s heart flopped and his breath caught and his mind went into overdrive.  Sicheng was in the process of climbing off him, but Yuta grabbed blindly to stop him, keep him from leaving.

“You weren’t asleep?”

Sicheng smiled softly, a touch sad.  “No, Yuta, I wasn’t. And I heard what you said.”  Yuta wanted the bedsheets to strangle him. “And I’m sorry that I made you feel so bad about yourself.  I’m also a bit sorry this is the way I was planning to fix it, with just sleeping with you, but not that sorry.  You are painfully attractive.”

Yuta’s whole entire world had turned upside down all of a sudden, he couldn’t think straight.  Not that he wanted to. He knew this was a bad idea on Sicheng’s part, and he knew that he had to be the more responsible one here and not sleep with Sicheng, no matter how much his body was screaming at him to.

So, with as much hesitancy as determination, Yuta scooped Sicheng up and plopped him onto the bed on his back, switching their positions to hover above him.  This wasn’t much better for Yuta’s self-control, to be fully honest, but at least now he could steer this interaction with a bit more purpose.

“Yuta,” Sicheng murmured, his hands slowly running up Yuta’s sides to curve around his neck.  “So are we gonna…?”

“No.”  Yuta was honestly surprised at how firmly he said that.  He so very much wanted to fuck Sicheng senseless, but he knew they had to talk first.  And this might be the only way he could actually corner Sicheng into this conversation.  He wasn’t a touchy-feely guy and would always run away from this kind of thing unless given incentive, and a mostly naked Yuta on top of him would have to be incentive enough.

Sicheng looked startled and confused, curling away a little bit but not fully, still allowing his chest to brush against Yuta’s when he breathed.

“Sicheng, we need to talk.”

Sicheng’s eyes sparkled with mirth.  “Are you breaking up with me?”

Yuta could feel his breath reflect off of Sicheng’s skin as he laughed softly, that’s how close they were.  “God, I love you.”

Sicheng’s eyes widened and he cocked his head to the side a little bit, the smile on his face turning tentative.  “Do you… do you actually?”

Yuta’s heart threatened to beat out of his chest.  He so very much ached to kiss the pout from Sicheng’s lips, to leave traces of himself throughout him to remind him just how in love with him he was.  But he didn’t have permission to do that. Sicheng hadn’t kissed him before, he couldn’t kiss Sicheng now.

“Yeah,” he whispered.  “Yeah, I actually love you, Sicheng.  I’m  _ in  _ love with you.”

Sicheng smiled brightly.  “That’s good. Because I’m in love with you, too.”

Yuta’s heart burst in his chest.  It felt like a star had exploded inside of him.  He was comfortingly warm from his fingers to his toes, which were notoriously cold.  He couldn’t help himself; he pushed forward, wrapping his arms around Sicheng to pull him towards him and slamming his mouth into Sicheng’s.  He only had one thought repeating over and over in his head,  _ Sicheng loves me.  Sicheng loves me. Sicheng loves me!! _

When he pulled away, Sicheng laughed brightly, squirming out of Yuta’s arms a bit.  “If I had known that was all it took to get you out of your shell, I would have told you forever ago.”

“What?”  Yuta was so deliriously happy that he didn’t fully register what Sicheng had said until the smile disappeared from his lips.

Sicheng sighed and relaxed back, pushing Yuta to lay down next to him instead of above him.  “Yuta…” He didn’t seem able to form the words properly. “Ah, okay, you… you can’t tell, but you’ve always had this barrier up when it comes to actual feelings and… I’ve been scared to tell you because of it.”  Sicheng seemed tired and Yuta felt his heart reach for him. He wasn’t looking at him, just speaking towards the ceiling, and that made it all the more worse. “Everybody always jokes about how you can’t talk about feelings with me because I run away, but you're just as bad, maybe even worse.  Every time I’ve tried to get you to talk to me, listen to me, feel something besides snark, you always change the subject. You avoid emotions like the plague, especially when they’re yours. And it can get really confusing because I’m pretty sure you’re flirting with me most of the time and then you just shut me out when I try and get any closer.”

Yuta’s freshly bloomed heart wilted and he pushed closer to Sicheng, trying to get him to look at him.  He had no idea he’d hurt Sicheng like that, no idea he was that oblivious.

“You have no clue how long I’ve been falling for you, Sichengie.”  Yuta tried to convey as much sincere emotion as he could in his voice.  “I’m so sorry I did that. I didn’t realise I was being so closed off. I really  _ really  _ like you and I really really want to kiss you all the time, so it probably started as fear you would find out and then kind of just…”  Yuta was rambling and he didn’t want to seem to be making excuses, so he cut off quickly. “I’m sorry, Sicheng. Really, I am.”

Sicheng rolled onto his side and folded his arms between himself and Yuta, curling into his chest.

“And I’m sorry for seeming like I was being hostile towards you after the whole Mark situation.  I just… I want to help him  _ so badly _ .  He’s been dealing with this for so much longer than I have and I know how he’s feeling, I know what he wants, and so I was trying to take care of him the way I would want someone to take care of me.  And I felt you weren’t understanding enough. I’m sorry for snapping and then…”

“I forgive you.”  Yuta could see how poorly Sicheng was feeling about the whole situation, especially with the dark rings under his eyes accentuating his point.  He just wanted to make him feel better, no matter what. That’s why he let a kind (and anxious) smile cross his face. “Now can I kiss you?”

Sicheng smiled devilishly, all previous heavy emotions lost, and wrapped his arms (and one ankle) around Yuta to pull him close.  Yuta felt shivers run down his spine and he slowly relaxed himself into Sicheng again.

“Of course.  And then, how about we actually get your dick in me, hm?”

Yuta ignored Sicheng’s snide remarks and pushed into him, kissing him hard, trying to communicate as much love as possible through his movements.  Sicheng kissed him in return, shoving him to lay on his back again so that he could straddle him, again, and running his fingers all over Yuta’s body.

He was heating back up, his instincts telling him how to handle Sicheng, and he let himself relax into it this time, supporting Sicheng’s hips above his own and bucking up into him.  Sicheng’s grip tightened and he laughed into Yuta’s mouth, pulling back to kiss down to Yuta’s neck.

“I’ve been waiting so long for you,” Yuta groaned, letting his head fall back so Sicheng could chew on his skin, leaving marks.

Sicheng snickered.  “This is going to be so much fun.”

 

\-----

 

Mark was sitting at the dining table when Yuta tip-toed out of his room the next morning, sore all over the place and not even bothering to put on more clothes than a pair of Sicheng’s sweats.  He was trying not to wake anyone up, praying that they wouldn’t tease him for being too loud like they did Dongyoung and Taeyong, but Mark didn’t even look up from his bagel, just kept watching his phone buzz next to him.

“Someone’s popular this morning.”  Yuta’s voice was hoarse and scratchy and he blushed when he heard it, but it reminded him of Sicheng’s fingers dragging the sounds from him last night and he felt a touch proud.  He’d actually slept with Sicheng, pulled him apart and put him back together. That was real.

“And someone else is limping, but I wasn’t gonna comment.”  Mark’s snide remark actually startled a laugh out of Yuta. The unexpected sound made him realize he didn’t care if the boys teased him about Sicheng.  He was in love, he got to have him, and he didn’t really mind after that.

Yuta prepared a witty comeback, but Mark’s phone went off a bunch more times and he sighed deeply, obviously annoyed.

“Who is it?”

“The Dreamies group chat.  Donghyuck texted them last night that you and Sicheng were fucking and they haven’t shut up since.  I think right now they’re…” he paused to check the messages flooding in, “devising a plan to convince Taeyong-hyung that he should allow them to date… yeah, Jisung just said something about hyung being a hypocrite, so…”

Yuta slid into the chair across from Mark, ignoring the tiny twinges of pain in his legs at the action, and grabbed Mark’s phone, entering his password easily.  He had almost everyone’s passwords memorized at this point, except for Renjun’s. It was his way of making sure he stayed close with his abundance of members; Renjun’s was just complicated as hell.

“Hey!” Mark squeaked, not trying very hard to get it back.

Yuta scrolled through the chat.  “Wow, you and the Dreamies talk about some really adult stuff for a bunch of  _ minors.” _

Mark smiled, his exhaustion diminishing from his eyes a bit.  “Yeah, well, it could be worse. We could actually be sleeping together like all of the hyungs apparently are.”

“It’s just four of us.”  Yuta rolled his eyes, setting Mark’s phone down.

Mark laughed.  “Not even. Kun and Ten, Ten and Johnny, Johnny and Taeyong, although that one’s been over since before debut.  Who else…? Taeyong and Jaehyun for about a week; Johnny and Taeil off and on; Taeil and Dongyoung for a month right after Limitless promotions; Yukhei and Jungwoo, I think, although that one’s a maybe.”

Yuta was dumbfounded.  “Really? So everyone except me, Sicheng, and the Dreamies?”

“Yeah.”  Taeyong trailed into the room, dark circles under his eyes and Dongyoung attached to his back like a leech.  “Welcome to the club. Meetings are on Wednesdays and don’t let Ten talk you into weird shit.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as kind of my return to the stage after a summer of nothing, and it’s my first NCT fic, so it’s probably a bit of a messy, but I had a lot of fun with it, so I hope you enjoyed it, too.


End file.
